Days like today

Days like today always remind me of early spring in Houston. It's not too humid, and there's lots of sunshine, and a warm breeze blowing. We took Jonathan out for the first time since before his transplant on a day like today. It was sunny and fairly warm, and we had cabin fever like you would NOT believe. So, Julia, Jonathan's transplant coordinator, came in one morning with a wagon and announced that we were going outside. PANIC!! You mean leave the room? Outside the hospital?! What??? She promised to go with us, so I calmed down. We dressed Jonathan in the only clothes he had there---a sweat suit---and a surgical mask. He looked at us like we had grown horns when we put that mask on his little face, but you could see that he was smiling. His eyes were smiling, so that meant the rest of him was, too. He kept the mask on until we were almost outside, then he'd had enough of that. I tried to keep it on him, but it just didn't work. Oh, well.... He LOVED being outside, though! He was willing to put the mask on his face, just so he could go out. After that, Jonathan wanted to be in the wagon, and going all the time! We had to wait until evening, but we would go cruising around the building when it was quiet, and everyone had gone home for the day. He loved just getting out of the four walls that were our home for so much of the day.

Today, when he's supposed to be doing schoolwork, Jonathan keeps wandering outside. It's almost like he's drawn out there. I wonder if, in the deep recesses of his mind, he has some tiny memory of being cooped up, but longing to escape the four walls that held him. It could be that he just doesn't want to do his work, but I like to think that he's drawn out there for reasons that he can't explain. It just sounds better that way! He's heading back to public school in a few months, and then he'll be stuck inside all day. It's so pretty out there....I think I'll let him go!